When I think about the fast food movement it is hard for me to understand the hype that everyone makes about it. I was raised in a family where my mother somehow always made time to go grocery shopping every week, keeping the house stocked with food. She was able to cook dinner every night and pack us lunches for school. I can remember being jealous of kids who ate fast food, we always want what we don’t have right? Now as I look back, I have a whole new outlook.

          When I think about fast food vs slow food, I can’t help to think about one thing in particular. Lunchables. There was always at-least one kid in class that had a lunchable when I was younger and even now as an adult, they are still extremely over-rated. I look at them as a store bought fast-food. It is an overpriced package of some tiny crackers, some tiny slices of generic cheese, and tiny slimy slices of what looks like fake ham. They also have a pizza simply some small round bread, with red sauce in a squeeze package and shredded cheese that you make yourself. I used to beg my mom to buy these, and she never bought a single one. What my mom did, was put together some sliced pepperoni , block slices of cheese, and some ritz crackers. She made a fancy little lunchable for me. It took her a little bit more time to make, but its healthier, it’s fresh, it’s more filling. It was made with love. It was made for my school lunch. She wouldn’t waste her money on buying the lunchable, she’d rather buy the items to make her own.

            What is it that makes the difference between choosing between fast food and slow food? Is it the fact that the parent who bought their child the lunchables  doesn’t have the time and convenience to to make their child’s lunch? Spending a few extra dollars on what seems to be a waste of money in my mom’s mind, may be saving the day for a parent who has no time to fix their kid a lunch before school ? Maybe for their family, they don’t have the time to go grocery shopping and spending money at a fast-food restaurant to save time, is worth it. Maybe it’s the fact that it is what the family all prefers to eat. Advertising and media do an amazing job at hyping up fast-food, and just like as kids those lunchables looked so appealing, so do all the fast-food ads. So maybe the families are just ordering out for dinner because it is simply what the family wants to enjoy for their dinner. For some, spending the extra money to save that extra time is well worth it. Yet, as American’s I believe we always want what we don’t have, without even realizing it.

         Americans have less time for slow-food when the majority of families are constantly trying to work more hours to make more money. Time is money, and it takes extra time to do the grocerys shopping, as well as the meal prepping. Depending what class you live in can make a huge determination on whether or not you are eating fast food vs slow food. The less money you have, the more hours you work. Therefore, fast-food becomes the go to when it’s time to eat. Also, depending where you live, it may not be that convenient for you to find time to get to a grocery market every so often. There are near by towns where if you want to go to the grocery store, you have to drive atleast 15- 20 minutes, which just costs more time and money, again making fast-food the go to.

     Another thing I find interesting, is when you take a look at how farmers worked back in the day, they all worked hard and wanted to be successful. Now you take a look at some of the business men who became so successful, they actually have a dream to buy land and become a farmer. American families that have been brought up always eating fast food, most likely never had the chance to live and eat strictly slow food meals. I know someone who did just that, and now they don’t purchase any of their meats or eggs. Having their own farm and the spare time gives them the chance to raise farm animals and slaughter them himself. They always have meat stocked up in their freezer ready to be taken out for a slow-food dinner.

Bhat, Zuhaib Fayaz, et al. “In Vitro Meat Production: Challenges and Benefits Over Conventional Meat Production” Journal of Integrative Agriculture, Vol:14 , Issue:10, Feb 2015. Page: 241-248 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S209531191460887X

The ScienceDirect website provides access to a large bibliographic database of scientific and medical publications. This article was written by three authors who all have background in the Division of Livestock Products Technology, Faculty of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Jammu, Jammu, India. This article covers everything from the history of in vitro meats, to the recent space missions. It mentions production techniques, costs, public support, social acceptance, drawbacks and dangers and is therefore a highly credible source.

Khan, S., et al. “The Scaling-Up of Lab-Grown Meat Production: A Critical Analysis of Nutritional Profiling Challenges, and Ethical Implications.” Pakistan Journal of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 22 , Jan. 2024, http://pjbmb.com/index.php/pjbmb/article/view/96

This article was most recently published in the year 2024, the authors are part of the Department of Biotechnology, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan. The Pakistan Journal of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology is Higher Education Commission (HEC) recognized and indexed peer-reviewed journal which publishes high-quality original research in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Biotechnology, Bioinformatics, Cell Biology, and related areas.

Kumar, Pavan, et al.“In- Vitro Meat: A Promising Solution for Sustainability of Meat Sector” Journal of Animal Science and Technology, 22, June 2021 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8367411/pdf/jast-63-4-693.pdf

This article can be found on the Official United States Government website, the National Library of Medicine,National Center for Biotechnology Information. The author has a background from Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, and the Department of Livestock Products Technology.

“Cell-Cultured Meat Updates: state bans, labeling requirements, and regulatory clarifications” The National Agriculture Law Center, 06, June 2024, https://nationalaglawcenter.org/cell-cultured-meat-updates-state-bans-labeling-requirements-and-regulatory-clarifications/

This article was published most recently in 2024 by the Nations leading source of agriculture and food law research and information. This article informs you on the most recent laws and regulations to do with cell-cultured meat.

Lymbery, Philip “ The Case for Lab grown Meat” Time , 24 Oct. 2023 https://time.com/6327474/lab-grown-meat-defense-essay/

This article was written in Time magazine, by a global chief executive of Compassion in World farming, a former United Nations Food Systems Champion, and award winning author.

Lymbery, Philip and Michel Vandenbosch “Cultivated Meat to Secure our Future, Hope for Animals, Food Security and the Environment”Lantern Publishing & Media, 24 Oct. 2023

This book informs, inspires, and opens debates about cultivated meat through an amazing collection of visionary and respected contributors.Each essay in this collection powerfully presents the latest research and opinions regarding its potential for solving our current planetary crises. Also included is a thought-provoking foreword by Ira van Eelen, daughter of Willem van Eelen, the godfather of cultivated meat.

    “Meat, a vital source of protein and iron, is the chief dietary source consumed by most people.” (Khan) Moving forward, we absolutely cannot depend on conventional meat as a sustainable food production. Today, there is lab- meat, a method of production that addresses a wide-range of challenges and moral implications associated with traditional animal-based food production.

    Lab meat, cultivated meat, or in- vitro meat, “is produced by cultivating stem cells originating from an animal for eventual human consumption. Stem cells are derived from an animal biopsy and placed within a suitable culture medium enriched with essential nutrients, energy sources, growth promoting hormones, and other requisite variables to facilitate the development and differentiation of these stem cells into mature muscle cells within a bioreactor for large scale production. This results in the formation of muscle fibers, adipose tissue, and other cellular components for shaping muscle tissue. Following food processing steps such as shaping, coloring, and seasoning, these cells are harvested to yield consumable meat end-products.”(Kahn)

     The origin of the idea dates back to 1912, but it wasn’t until 2004 that they began refining technology from mass production. We needed to find a solution, a new way to move forward while meeting the demands for meat. “If our western world’s growing population continued to eat meat at our current rate, we would need 4 planets to support our consumption, and we would lose our polar ice caps.” (Cultivated meat to secure our future)Today, planetary emergencies around climate, the collapse of nature and rising health risks are threatening us all. It is a scientifically based estimate that suggests to get this world back on track, the amount of meat coming from our conventional meat production would need to be reduced by more than half. (Case for lab grown meat) “Besides winning the favour of animal rights activists for its main production of meat, in vitro meat production system also circumvents many of the issues associated with conventional meat production systems, like excessively brutal slaughter of food animals, nutrition related diseases, foodborne illnesses, resource use, antibiotic resistant pathogen strains, and massive emissions of methane that contribute to global warming.”(Bhat)

    Despite all the benefits, we continue to be faced with significant hurdles before we make it into the mainstream markets. That’s if we make it at all. As of 2024, four states have considered legislation banning the manufacture, sale, or distribution of cell-cultured meat. So far, only Florida and Alabama both passed legislation as well as their governor’s signed it into law. Related to the bans on cell-cultured meat, Iowa passes meat alternative labeling requirements, imposing a labeling restriction on the use of meat like terms. “The law prohibits the use of an “identifying meat term”on the package of a manufactured-protein food product unless a “qualifying term” is within close proximity on the package.” There have been sixteen other states creating a variety of requirement’s for cell-cultured and meat alternative food products that have passed legislation. Between formally banning cell-cultured meats and establishing new labeling requirements, it seems that states and agencies are looking to increase regulation of this growing field. ( Cell-cultured meat updates)

Lab grown meats

https://ikee.lib.auth.gr/record/325009/files/Tsegelidistt.pdf

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10495398.2021.19

https://www.jstor.org/stable/26002567

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6078906/

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10806-014-9508-9

https://time.com/6327474/lab-grown-meat-defense-essay/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306919220301354

Book-cultivated meat to secure our future, hope for animals,food security and the environment,edited by Michel Vandenbosch and Philip Lymbery

This provocative book informs, inspires, and opens debates about cultivated meat through an amazing collection of visionary and respected contributors.

Each essay in this collection powerfully presents the latest research and opinions regarding its potential for solving our current planetary crises. Contributors include Isha Datar of New Harvest, Chase Purdy, author of Billion Dollar Burger and Hanna Tuomisto one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of environmental sustainability assessment of cell-cultured food production technologies. Also included is a thought-provoking foreword by Ira van Eelen, daughter of Willem van Eelen the godfather of cultivated meat, and CEO of CEO of KindEarth.Tech and RESPECTfarms – Less

Cell-Cultured Meat Updates: state bans, labeling requirements, and regulatory clarifications

In What Seed-Saving Can Teach Us About The End Of The World, Kea Krause and Levon Biss question the importance of seed saving as the world is faced with what could be world ending disasters as time goes on.

In the article, Krause thinks back to 80 years ago when the Nazis invaded Russia, the city’s population was starving, so to prevent their world from ending, researchers risked and dedicated their lives to watch over nearly 400,000 seeds. They were able to save species of corn, wheat, rice, and many other crops that were invaluable to not just the Russian people, but even the entire human race.

Krause sits at her home in Maine, staring at a tomatoe, she is faced with the Covid 19 pandemic and being a new mother for just 10 months. How will she feed her child crosses her mind, and she begins to flirt with the idea to start saving seeds herself.

The pandemic wasn’t the only factor she is taking into consideration, climate control itself has done its fair share of destroying crops and it is only getting worse. Krause starts to learn more about the danger our seeds are in and the journey they take to get us the crops we buy and need so desperately. every seed has a story “ a story of how it traveled from one continent to another, from earth to your hand. Archivist at the Seed Savers Exchange catalogue these stories.” Krause mentions a bean grown by a prisoner, who took it when she was forced to march, a tomatoes seed smuggled into the prison by someone serving a sentence for a drug charge, and harvested in a work release program. She even read about a woman fleeing wildfires in New Mexico with a jar of maiz de concho seeds, passed down in her family for generations, this was the first thing she packed.

Krause said “ I was learning a funny thing about seeds: though they hold the blueprints of life’s belongings, they’re often associated with the end of something – my tomato, life as we know it – apocalypse, big and small” what was she one day to tell her daughter about this tomato? They were one of her favorite foods to eat in the first year of life, was Krause saving seeds so she could continue to keep eating some thing she loved, or closer to the truth, that she sometimes pictured the future and wondered if tomatoes would still be there at all?

“ In 1810 90% of Americans were farmers presumably saving their own seeds. Today less than 2% of Americans partake farming.” Saving seeds was essential, if you wanted to eat, you had to grow your own food, so that meant saving seeds from one harvest to plant the next season and this is what humans did to survive yet the past century Krause recognizes how regional agriculture faded, Farms shrunk from 40% to one percent. People have been drawn off the land by consolidation and mechanization in agriculture by the rise of food processing in supermarkets and refrigerated transportation that made it possible to efficiently get food grown in one place to the rest of the country. This modern approach caused us a dire situation, in which crops like lettuce, dropping from 500 varieties to just 36, losing 75% of global diversity. Krause addresses the way, climate control has made the need for local and regional levels to experiment with plant breeding, this has caused a crop that’s grown for decades to be soon much less viable there. Corn faces uncertainty in Iowa due to extreme weather events. “And in California, which produces, most of the fruits and vegetables Americans eat, rising heat, drought, and wildfire are driving efforts to shift some of the states agriculture burden elsewhere.”

Krause addresses these crises in the heightened interest in seed saving, happening in the context of one genuinely global existential threat -climate control- and another- Covid 19 pandemic- persuading many people to start preparing for some version of what is going to go down. People are purchasing variety of kits prepped for a number of adults to survive. This idea that we should be prepared for emergencies – societal collapse, or a hurricane – has a long history in this country. It goes back to the 1950’s when the federal government bluebook on civil defense stressed that the “family unit constitutes the basis for individual self protection”Krause admits there is something undemocratic about this approach to preparing for the worst. “Fear your food is running out without the ability to grow gather or kill it yourself causes undeniable anxiety. It’s the everyone for themselves response, however instinctive, obscures the fact that we all exist as members of a fragile ecosystem. Rejection of that membership, by bunking down and refusing to participate, will lead to almost certain collapse.”

Krause again, things of what she will tell her daughter, this time she decides to “reacquaint herself with the feeling of hope, or at least the feeling of dirt beneath her fingernails.” She finds a local farm off one of means rural roads, and becomes part of the seed saving process. She is able to see firsthand the seed breeding expertise that is known broadly both within and beyond Maine. Krause begins to learn and experience the journey of the seeds. She learns the techniques needed to extract seeds from their dried stalks and pods, and stubborn beet seeds.

Krause also is able to understand a new outlook on her first impression of those who partake in preparation. She is told “ acting from a place of abundance and plenty versus a fear based place of I need to hang onto everything I have. And rather than stocking up and dropping out, if you partake, you will never have to prep”

Krause decides not to allow the world to end, and started to invest all she could into what the projects founder calls “seed therapy”. she was able to “understand uncertainty as an opportunity rather than a misfortune. This is what seeds do. Natures odds are cruel to seeds and year after year they grow into trees and plants.”

I have always known how serious climate control was becoming, and when the pandemic hit, this didn’t even cross my mind. I actually feel a great sense of ignorance for not giving it more thought. Especially being an avid gardener. I live in New England where the weather is unpredictable, and since I have started gardening, I did it with the basic knowledge of planting your seed, giving it sun and water, and waiting for it to grow. I never paid attention to what type of seeds I was purchasing, therefore I never knew the exact type of crop I had grown, nor the importance of it.

When I would plant seeds in my garden, there were always certain crops that did well, and others that did not. For instance one year I was able to grow a watermelon that was just about six pounds, it was absolutely perfect. Every year since I haven’t been able to get another watermelon. I am learning now, that if I had paid attention to the watermelon I had planted, and saved the seeds for the next harvest, this would have been beneficial in multiple ways. “By saving seeds, plants become more dependable by adjusting to their surroundings.”(Hannah Van Eendenburg)

With Climate control changing drastically, there are areas that are being affected by all sorts of agriculture crisis. This is changing the way crops are grown, as well as if they will continue to grow and this can impact crops we have come to rely on. This is why we have started to house seed banks where they can store and protect a varieties of seeds. At the Seed Savers Exchange, they hold over 25,000 seeds, and if a rare disease ends up wiping out a specific crop, they have the option to use these rare seeds to fill the void.

“Food growing and seed saving are at the front lines of the climate crisis. Growing well adapted foods at the local level gives us the opportunity to reduce our climate impacts while also making our food system stronger in the face of uncertainty. The argument for regional seeds is parallel to that of local food in many ways, including fostering community relationships, strengthening economies, and increasing social justice.” (Hannah Van Eendenburg)

I myself, would be terrified if the day came where families were purchasing survival kits packaged with seeds, basically saying be prepared to start growing your own food, if you want to continue to eat. We clearly have taken advantage of this through-out history given the fact that it used to be, if you wanted to eat, you had to grow your own food. Seed saving is something that is easy to do, and should be practiced given life’s disasters that are inevitable to take place, without any given warning.

When European colonizers realized their crops would not adapt to land in America, they turned to native plants. They began to save and exchange seeds through indigenous tribes in order for their crops to grow, and built a collection of crops that were successful. This, however, gave the private sector the potential for growth, and seed distribution began to change. The federal government discontinued the free seed distribution program in 1924, and “intellectual property rights and patented were developed, further increasing corporate control in the seed world and making these companies economically and politically untouchable. It became illegal for individuals to save most seeds owned by corporations, and the rich history of traditional seed saving and the social and cultural role of seeds changed forever.”(Hannah Van Eendenburg) Now, the “power is in the hands of four agricultural corporations in the world: Bayer (the company that acquired Monsanto in 2018), Corteva Agriscience, Sinochem, and BASF own more than 67% of seeds worldwide.” (Hannah Van Eendenburg)

This is why the more people that can partake in starting their own seed libraries, it will give us the chance to grow well adapted food. “Saving local seeds that flourish in your specific environment is key for food security and resilience. This is especially important today, in the face of the climate crisis, erratic weather conditions, and an increasingly unstable food system.”(Hannah Van Eendenburg)

Biss, Levon and Krause, Kea. What Seed-Saving Can Teach Us About the End of the World. Orion. November 16th, 2022. https://Orionmagazine.org/article/seedsavers

Van Eendenburg, Hannah. Seed Saving at the Front Line of the Climate Crisis. GreenAmerica.https://greenamerica.org/story/seed-saving-front-lines-climate-crisis

Thornton, Stuart. Saving Seeds. National Geographic. February 26, 2024. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/saving-seeds/

Corn tastes better on the honor system

Well, for me, this essay was more like a short story I had extreme mixed feelings about. I was entertained at first, but I must admit I was lost and had to read it over and over. I for some reason was personally insulted being someone who gardens and takes pride in planting and growing corn myself. I believe the title has to do with her enjoying the corn only when it’s grown in her special snobby perfect spiritual way. The honor system being when you honor the corn the way you would honor mother corn and put all the love and care into growing it, if you grow it that way, her way, that would be the correct system, the “honor system”. I understand it is her culture and the history, mixed with the science , but much of what she wrote was about how sour she felt with things becoming colonized and god forbid the word was changed to corn. She was for sure torn up about how others were not doing things her way. I didn’t like how judge-mental she was toward her neighbor who was clearly putting in so much work, but just because he didn’t have the special seeds or the perfect song, his corn was not honor system worthy. In the beginning I was amazed at the analogies she made in the different comparisons in TEK and technology of corn. I thought this was going to be for entertainment but in the end I believe it was to inform. I never knew how truly important corn was and it actually was something I was thinking of writing about myself. I loved when she said “The DNA in every cell carries the story of brown fingers poking these seeds into the earth, fingers just like mine, with dirt under their nails.” It just put me in my garden with my hands filthy from doing hard work all day. Her writing was beautiful, I hate that I was quite confused with some of it. I couldn’t completely tell how she felt throughout the essay.I could feel her love and passion for the corn and how serious it meant to her. Well, the symbolism behind the corn and everything in the history that goes with it. She gets very serious with some of the things she says, some what biblical I feel when she made comments such as “After making the beautiful Earth, the creator gods set about making beings worthy of these gifts. After several failed attempts, the twin creators took two different colors of corn and formed them into humans. People made of maize were most pleasing to the gods for their gratitude for life, their care for other beings, and their joy. Maize, the Mother of All Things, gave life to the People. The books that recorded these stories were burned by the colonists, who saw themselves as made in the image of God, not from a lowly plant.” I see the beauty in the comparison I just also can’t tell if I feel like it is over the top or not. For all I know this could be something from the Bible and I wouldn’t even know it so I may be a bit ignorant here. I personally have such mixed feelings about this essay, it is difficult for me to comment on without going back and forth. I think it’s because I myself want to write about growing corn for an essay, and I am taking some of the things she says personal, as if she would be judging me, and she would for sure not label my corn as honor system.

Saturday Night Dinner

By Jenny Mcquire

I absolutely love how well detailed it was written. I was truly able to feel as if I was right there in the scene. Your description of the food was so vivid it was mouth watering, you did a great job’
I found the first few paragraphs to mostly be scenes with the last two being more summary, and found the main message to come down to how after your grandfather lost his wife, he decided to take over in the kitchen and create a meal for one special night a week to bring the family together.
The order of events are clear and it is written well, I do feel most of it was more descriptions (which were so well written) , but would like to hear something that made one of those special memories. or something that made Aunt Patty laugh. Any memories you have to tell, Some dialogue? Did your grandfather ever leave you his special recipe for the sauce? (Out of curiosity). Overall I think you did a great job, i truly would just like to hear some sort of story or well memory told, somethings your grandfather said to get a better idea of is personality or commentary on the experience while eating dinner with the family. When you make your meatballs what are some of the things you remember him saying ? Did he have any special ways of doing things that you now do yourself?
In my opinion you did a wonderful job

 Every morning begins the same way. I get up, get a cup of coffee, and sit in the window with my cat Cornell. We watch out the window and sure enough see my two favorite squirrel’s Chip and Tom, and the family of groundhogs scurrying around through what I call my jungle. My own backyard, finally, and boy do I have some serious ideas for it. Today is the day.

  I throw on one of my old wife-beater tank tops, shorts, with my old tan timberland boots with paint  splattered all over them, get outside and look around at my new project. First things first. I can feel the grass tickling my shins, and won’t get far if I don’t cut this stuff, so I better figure out how to wrk that old lawn mower in the shed back here. I did it too, no phone calls to dad, or the landlord, nope, all by myself, first time ever mowing the lawn. Now it’s time to make the fence visible. There are weeds and branches growing up and over the fence, all intertwined through the links. This should be fun…. All I am working with are a small pair of clippers that cost about 3 bucks from Job lot. I am determined. A few sweaty hours later, you could see through to the neighbor’s yard. I was finished. How about that! Now, I had my mind set on a garden, so I had to decide where I could start ripping up grass, and how big of an area without pissing off the landlord. I tried to start going wild just ripping grass out of the ground, it was not easy. I dug through the shed and found this old rusty big shovel. Perfect. I used to edge out the area that was going to be my new garden and started ripping up some grass. All of a sudden I could hear Cornell calling me from the window. He was hnugry and the sun was about to set. I quickly fed him, and rushed down the street to my grandfathers house down the bay.

  My mom had been staying here caring for him while he was on hospice, otherwise, I never would have came which is sad to say. Gramp is not a super friendly guy, we have never spoken much, fair to say he is kinda a grouch, he only like things done his way and is very picky. His new house though, a beautiful condo, right on the water, so when we sit on the deck to eat dinner, it’s like you’re on a boat floating in the water watching the sun set. I start telling everyone about my days adventure, I can’t believe I have my grandfather’s attention. “You need a tiller”…what the heck is a tiller?..”you can use the one I have in the garage on Byron street, all the yard tools are in there” Is he talking to me? “Does that yard have good dirt, you need good dirt” “um, I don’t even know yet gramp I havent really gotten that far, I don’t even know what I am planting yet. I don’t have much room, and I just wanted to do some things for myself, and figured id help feed the groundhogs and squirrels that run through the yard” Everyone laughed but him. “You can’t have a garden with groundhogs, they will tear it up” Psh, nah I got this. “Where did you get this corn? Stop n Shop again? It’s not that sweet” haha moms turn “the farmers market, this morning!”Gramps corn was never good enough, this was literally an everyday dilemma. Right there I knew one thing I would definitely be planting.

   The next morning I was even more pumped. The jungle looked all cleaned up, a little too bare actually but that was going to change in time. Threw on a  wife-beater, shorts, Tims and then grabbed my 20 packs of seeds and out the door I went. I dug right in there, bare hands and all, I couldn’t seem to grip the grass well with gloves, so I decided to go with dirty fingernails for the day. I ripped out all the grass till I had a nice section for my garden. Not a big garden, but oh I would fit what I could. “You have to have good dirt” oh no. My dirt is dry, with rocks everywhere, big rocks small rocks, it was a disaster. Dirt is dirt though right, and I am broke, so I’m working with what I got. I laid out all my packs of seeds, and narrowing down which vegetables I wanted in the garden. I wanted it wild looking. I knew I was def doing the corn, I also knew I wanted my own pumpkins so I wouldn’t have to buy them when fall came, so that was a must. Watermelons, of course. Some string beans, maybe cucumbers, and zucchini so mom can make her zucchini blueberry bread. I doubt I will even have room for this tuff, but I will make it work. I tried reading the directions on the packets of seeds, but it was like reading jibberish. Who brings a ruler outside with them, rows hills give me a break, I would have had maybe 4 plants growing if I followed the directions, this yard was made to be a jungle. Plus, the groundhogs will probably eat half of it. It took all day. I was trying to be neat about it, and mark off what was what. I was covered in sweat. My wife beater was soaked, stretched out and filthy. The sweat dripping down my face I kept wiping with my dirty hands so I’m sure I looked like I just went down a chimney, and I could feel dirt all inside my boots. I actually liked that I looked the part. Geez now I know why gramp took so much pride in his yard work, I probably should of taken him up on his offer for those tools.Cornell was screaming in the window by now, so I got the hose and watered everything down. This is it, time to let Mother Nature do her thing.

    This wasn’t easy, everyday I went to water my little jungle , I also would leave lettuce near the groundhogs hole, and throw peanuts as far away from the garden as possible, trying to deter everyone from the garden. I thought maybe I could feed them enough where they wouldn’t be hungry to come after my stuff. I know at first I wanted to share with them but after all the hard work, I wanted to be greedy. I was especially over protective of the corn. Right now they looked like thin blades of grass, last thing I wanted was an animal eating that or running it over. I wasn’t even sure it was corn at first but sure enough there were 6 perfect stalks growing in a row. This was getting fun.

  As more time went on I had no clue pumpkins and watermelons grew in such extremely prickles vines. I had to keep trying to carefully move their growth direction so they wouldnt strangle the corn stalks. The corn was finally taller than my knee caps. They were so cute ! The stalks were getting so thick and strong compared to that thin blade of grass we started out with. They were starting to get the fuzzy tops poking out. It looked like a firework. Silver and purple. What kind of corn did I plant? Was this normal?? All I knew was I was growing corn stalks in my little Fall River back yard, and I was proud of myself.

   I kept my Grampa up to date and im getting the most conversation out of him Ive gotten in my whole life time. We both share the love and pride of taking care of your yard.

One morning I wake up to see the groundhog (the big one ) rummaging through the garden. Whoa! I do not think so. So, new project for the day. My landlord has a pile of cinder locks in the yard, and I move one by one making a barrier around my garden. It doesn’t look pretty but it does the job. Perfect! I go to check out my corn and oh my goodness, EARS! There are little baby ears growing off the sides of the stalk. Clearly this is all working. Who said my dirt wouldn’t work !! Now, you can imagine my frustration when a few days later, cornell and I are watching out the window, and he perks up real quick…theres Chip! Climbing my corn stalk! He is at the top of the stalk,upside down, fluffy tail in the air with his little hands opening an ear of corn trying to eat whats there. I run downstairs with the peanuts yelling at him throwing peanuts everywhere, if anyone was watching I am sure it was a sight to see. I was honestly panicking. He ruined an ear before it even had time to fill in. I was devastated. The little buggers did that three times behind my back. It got to the point I started buying them corn and throwing it in the other direction just so they wouldn’t touch mine. I was determined to salvage my own corn.

   It took a lot of extra work, but my jungle grew, and maybe I didn’t get as many crops as I wanted, but the corn stalks were definitely going to be awesome for fall decorations, and I atleast got one, just one absolutely perfect full grown ear of corn out my six corn stalks. Which if you ask me is pretty good considering I had 2 squirrels. I was tempted to eat it myself, but I gave it to my mom one day, and honest to god she didn’t say a word to my Grampa, but when she boiled it and served him his corn on the cob, he for the first time, did not complain. He actually said it was the best corn he had all summer. When he asked where she bought it and she told him Jessica’s garden, I swear to god I no longer questioned whether or not my grouchy Grampa liked me or not. We officially bonded. It was sad to say that it happened while he was on hospice, but corn was our thing. I put up some corn stalks in front of his house for fall, and since he made it till Christmas, for a gift I found this glass ornament of an ear of corn. He loved it. The man never smiled much. I couldn’t believe I was actually making him smile. And this all came from corn.

The editor of food and wine, Dana Cowin, gave a speech about the way ugly foods are changing the world. She loves to write about trends in the magazine but here she found more than a trend, this was a movement. This started out when the supermarkets started to sell what people called ugly foods at a reduced price. This was fruits and vegetables that wernt “perfect” to the eye. An oddly shaped vegetable or fruit, that just because it look deformed, people assume it wasn’t going to taste the same?? this was mind boggling to me. I am someone who loves to grow my own vegetables and no matter what they turn out like, I’ve always ate them and they have always tasted the same. They tasted perfect. Better than a grocery market’s perfect looking tomato, my tomato may look a bit warped and may get picked when it’s not a perfect shade of red, but it’s fresh, juicy and delicious. My mother and I actually eat a yogurt to support this movement. The yogurt is called “too good” and it is all made with fruits that would normally be thrown away. This yogurt brand says that 40 percent of fruits are wasted because of the way they look, which I truly find a disgrace. Dana Cowin found chefs all around the country that started using ugly foods, and turning them into beautiful dishes. For example certain types of fish, where they would waste half the fish by chopping off the head and throwing it away, just because the fish was so ugly. These chefs were able to create dishes that were so beautiful and delicious and they were made out of all what is seen as the ugly food. I find it so sad that food is wasted in this world just because of how it looks, when it is the absolute same on the inside. To be healthy in todays world it is so expensive and when I think about how people are throwing away food it is basically a slap in the face to those who can’t afford it. People are starving in this world and we are throwing out food. How terrible is that? I personally love that this issue has been addressed and there are companies and people out there making a change, making a difference, over something I find so silly, Putting perfectly good food in the trash just because of how it is shaped is absurd, and I am so glad everyone is starting to realize it .

Writing for me has always been sone of the ways I control myself from talking too much- in the wrong way, to the wrong people. I find notebooks that are filled with written letters that I never sent. They help my express my deepest thoughts and feelings and sort them out. It prepares me for the conversation I know I must have.

I just recently started to write in a book that was always too pretty for me to write in. It has a leather binding with vintage, thick cotton paper, with decked edges. I was going through a break-up and I decided to give the book back and forth after we took turns writing down our feelings and sharing thoughts we never quite say. We both shared a lot and took it very seriously, it was a great idea I wish we had done sooner, and it makes the book meaningful.

I love writing, I love concentrating on my penmanship, and having something to go back too and read. I learned from the best English teacher I had growing up in the sixth grade. The teacher made our daily homework assignment journaling 20 sentences. The first ten were to write something new you experienced with one each of your five senses that day. You smelt something new, you saw something, you heard something , you felt something, and you tasted something, and then use one sentence to describe it. The last ten sentences were free writing for our own personal journal. I absolutely loved this assignment. It was great to go back and read at the end of the year and I believe it is what first to me into writing. I enjoyed the short stories we would write and I always had great stories to tell. I was wicked into this class. This is how I became so in love with writing things out and I am so grateful for this teacher. I look forward to English class as an adult now, and wonder how well I will do now a days compared to my experience in sixth grade!